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THE SLAP
February 12, 2015  | By David Bianculli

NBC, 8:00 p.m. ET

 
MINISERIES PREMIERE: This new NBC miniseries is adapted from a 2011 miniseries from Australia, which in turn was based on the novel by Christos Tsiolkas – but in mounting a new version for the U.S., and especially in promoting it, NBC has washed away all traces of subtlety. The opening hour should have unfolded suspensefully, but every NBC promo for this eight-part drama includes and reveals the pivotal, titular action: an adult who, at a family backyard barbeque, slaps another person’s child. Each episode is framed from a different character’s point of view, so there will be a lot of conflicting accounts and modulated performances, as in The Affair – but this NBC version’s opening hour is so clunky and so blatantly overstaged, despite some flashes of good acting, that it’s hard to imagine viewers wanting to return for a second view. Stars include Uma Thurman from Kill Bill, Thomas Sadoski from HBO’sThe Newsroom, Zachary Quinto from NBC’s Heroes and the recent Star Trek movies, and – reprising her same role from the original Australian miniseries – Melissa George (pictured) from Alias.
 
 
 
 
 
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